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Barbara Brenner

I was born when TV’s were black and white, music was on vinyl and art in my house only existed in my step-father’s dreams. We moved with his job every year, and my Mother’s creativity was demanded to quickly make each house a home. Actually I had three parents: a musician, a singer aka creative Mother, and then the strict German engineer step-father, who appreciated art. The contrast of the three has fueled a conflicting stream of discipline and desires.

The many moves with the family ended in Atlanta, and the ultimate career with The Coca-Cola Company. The last half of my long tenure was in advertising, working with creatives and production – the perfect stepping stone to my career as an artist. Art was always this unknown and forbidden realm that lured. I played with art as a child – making the discarded into what I thought was beautiful. My step-father was always telling me to “sign that!” Funny, I had no idea what he meant.

The Bill Lowe Gallery has always been where I go to see, and buy, great contemporary art. But attending Michael David’s opening at The Gallery in 2007 was a huge turning point. Seeing his encaustic creations made an incredible impact on me. His pieces were exhilarating – and I was instantly fascinated with the visceral qualities of wax.

The Sea – Barbara Brenner, Encaustic on Birch 42×42″#LoweLook

Fast forward to 2010; researching encaustics for years, I had learned some of the mystery of this medium, but then I discovered Michael was planning an encaustics workshop in Atlanta. I was amazed and excited – nothing could stop me from taking that workshop! Life after that was never the same. Michael encouraged me to take chances; scaling up, loosen up, but stay safe. Encaustic is a dangerous medium, and physically challenging to work with on a large scale. You must have respect for this almost 200 degree medium, for much of the creation is a fusion of the wax and I. My goal is to create imagery that invokes a peaceful pause for the viewer. I want to feel like I’ve been pulled into a place to float, be soothed, and refreshed. It is ironic that it takes a fiery blow-torch, sharp scrapping instruments, loud exhaust fans, and heavy panels to achieve this peacefulness.

Many of my pieces contain a circle or oval. This imagery is comforting, and says there is ease in our movement through time. Knowing we really can’t control either, they just happen. My career as an artist has happened in a way that can be illustrated with the oval: a continual, yet slow movement towards being an artist.

An early fascination with creating objects, a career that eventually focused in the creative process of advertising, building admiration of contemporary art, becoming a collector, and then having the time to study and create encaustic art, eventually with the artist I long admired, to selling my art with The Bill Lowe Gallery, one that I have always savored.

So, it’s easy to understand why being in my studio, listening to music, and immersing myself in the exploration of my own creativity is so satisfying. All my parents would understand. And I get great pleasure in signing my work.

Bill Lowe Gallery is proud to showcase a stellar array of new works by artists from the Fine Arts Atelier. Included in the exhibition are artists Barbara Brenner, Karen Schwartz, Ellen DeLoach, Brenda Rehrig, Jeffrey Paclipan, Susan Moreno, Richard Diedrich, Kelin Perry and Susan Grill Joss, among others. The show opens on Friday, February 21st, from 6 until 9 PM.

Fine Arts Atelier, more commonly known as FAWS, provides classes, individual instruction, studio space, and a range of artist services designed to inspire and support artists in developing and strengthening their work. The original concept for this program was based on the Black Mountain School in North Carolina, where artists were taught by artists and worked in groups to gain, grow and hone their individual voice. Michael David launched this program and has been amazed at the pace at which it has grown, not only as a learning and teaching community, but as a family as well. According to Michael David, “it’s corny, but the Atelier is like family; sometimes we argue and sometimes we make mistakes, I am closer to some of the members than others.”

Michael David spends a great deal of time with every artist and is determined to bring out the best in each one of them. Ellen DeLoach has been a FAWS member since 2011 and she describes her immersion within a group of artists who are learning and passionate about art as “eye-opening.” DeLoach never had a formal education in art but, according to her, she feels like she is working on a Masters in Fine Art when being mentored by Michael David.

Another highly acclaimed artist, Barbara Brenner, recalls being “so excited that my hands started to shake” when she first learned of an encaustic workshop David hosted in Atlanta back in 2010. Flash forward to 2014 and her soulfully luminous encaustic panels are stopping gallery-goers in their tracks with an honesty and rawness that completely belie Brenner’s long tenure in corporate advertising at The Coca-Cola Company. The overwhelming success of her exhibition last season at Lowe Gallery has prompted Bill Lowe to schedule a second one-person show for the Fall of 2014.

According to Bill Lowe, “the FAWS show promises to be an astounding one, the accumulation of all these powerful artists in one space will without a doubt entrance the gallery’s patrons.” So bring friends, mingle with the artists, enjoy some good food and wine, and more than an anything take in the extraordinary artwork! The event is free to attend, and is a great way for the community to become involved in the thriving Atlanta art scene.

Bill Lowe Gallery has been recognized for a quarter-century as the South’s pre-eminent contemporary gallery. It is widely acclaimed for the depth and scope of its program, curatorial excellence, and concentration on content-driven work by artists with an advanced technical mastery of their media. The philosophical architecture of Bill Lowe Gallery is built upon a reverence for the alchemical nature of artistic expression. The gallery honors the profoundly spiritual nature of visual language and the role it can play in affecting paradigm shifts at both a personal and societal level.